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April temps below normal in NH

Granite Staters are taking a dreary, colder than normal spring in stride.

Brian Gricus of Derry, who rides a motorcycle, said he didn’t let the rainy, windy conditions prevent him from going for rides during the past month.

“I still went out in the rain; I still did it,” Gricus said. “A man can do what a man has to do. And it was still fun.”

It wasn’t the best weather for school vacation week, Matt Lazzaro of Derry said.

“It’s hard to be outside — you don’t want to bring the kids out, but you do what you can,” Lazzaro said.

Overall, the Granite State experienced a below normal April in temperature, according to meteorologists. Rainfall was about average but there was a number of cloudy, overcast days during the past month.

“As far as high temperatures and low temperatures, we’ve been cooler than normal; I’d say about three to six degrees cooler,” said Stacie Hanes, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine.

In summing up the conditions over the past month, Hanes said, “We’ve been in a progressively cool flow and we are getting below normal temperatures.”

But there is some good news in the form of a warming trend that was beginning to pervade Southern New Hampshire on Thursday, Hanes said. Temperatures had warmed by several degrees from the previous day into the low to mid 50s. The clouds were breaking, with abundant sunshine spreading throughout the area in the afternoon.

Hanes pointed to climate models from the National Weather Service that show the trend should continue into the summer months of June, July and August.

“They have us above normal for the three months, which is good news, ” Hanes said.